Big Events in Next 2 Weeks - Including our Tenants Meeting May 11th!

TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2011

RALLY AT FOR RENT LAWS at the RGB HEARING
Cooper Union's Great Hall, 7 E. 7th St. (at 3rd Ave.) 

4:30 PM.  

Rent Guidelines Board Preliminary Vote on rent increases for leases effective any time from October 1, 2011 to and including Sept. 30, 2012.  Because of a recent decision by New York State's highest court, the RGB has the power to say (as they did in 2008) that anyone with a rent under $1000 who has lived in their rent stabilized apartment for at least 6 years must pay a flat dollar-amount increase that could be double the percentage increase for those already paying higher rents.  

TUESDAY, MAY 3 
BUS TO ALBANY.  
Reserve a free seat from realrentreform@gmail.com and then catch the R3 bus on the northeast corner of Broadway & 96th St. at 9 AM).  Greet our legislators (returning from a long break) with the message that renewing & strengthening the rent laws must be first on their agenda.


FRIDAY, MAY 6

Fundraising Fiesta to support the Real Rent Reform Campaign
6-8 PM
1199/SEIU's Penthouse
330 W. 42nd Street, 33rd Floor
$25 minimum (but if you'd like to go and can't afford it, 
contact Steve ).
  


WEDNESDAY, MAY 11 

OUR GENERAL TENANTS MEETING

8 PM in the Community Room

• Court Decision affecting how our rents can be raised
• Nomination to replace a CPG Board member who resigned for health reasons
• Report on rent law status
• Pot Luck on Sat., June 4th.  What can you bring (or do)?
• Bring a chair and a neighbor!

MONDAY, MAY 16
R3 Rally near Gov. Cuomo's NYC office to let him know we need our rent laws strengthened and renewed NOW!  
5:30 PM                 
Meeting place not yet fixed - but will be near 3rd Ave. & 41st St. in Manhattan
Go with Steve (or meet him there).

 

Petition Governor Cuomo

Encourage Governor Cuomo to strengthen and renew the rent laws before they expire on June 15th!

• PRINT OUT SOME PETITIONS TO THE GOVERNOR.. (Scroll down for the text.) Get them signed, and give them to Steve Koulish in Apt. 12C

• SIGN THE PETITION ON LINE by clicking on http://www.change.org/petitions/support-stronger-rent-laws .

• GO TO ALBANY ON MAY 3rd! Scroll down for details .

• RALLY at RENT GUIDELINES BOARD  on MAY 3rd from 4:30 PM on

• PARTY: "Cinco" de Mayo FUNDRAISER on MAY 6 from 6-8 PM

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(1) Petition Governor Cuomo

Dear Governor Cuomo:

We, the People of New York, call on you to keep your promise to renting families by ensuring that more than two million New Yorkers do not lose their homes on June 15, 2011. The City of New York and the suburban counties are in a housing emergency. Without the protections of rent stabilization, the working and middle class -- the lifeblood of New York -- will be displaced. Governor Cuomo, we urge you to use your strong leadership to save our homes from special interests and to preserve affordable housing by:

1. Renewing and strengthening the rent laws which expire on June 15, 2011.

2. Repealing vacancy destabilization, the law has allowed 300,000 units to become destabilized since 1997, and

3. Re-regulating all apartments that have been deregulated under a flawed system that encourages fraud and tenant harassment, and

4. Extending rent regulation protections to tenants in former Mitchell-Lama and project-based Section 8 buildings.

New York needs real rent reform. The future of the rent regulation system is at stake.

Governor Cuomo, it’s up to you.

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(2) Join the Real Rent Reform Campaign in Albany
on Tuesday, May 3, 2011!

The state legislature is on vacation for the rest of this month (passing a budget on the backs of working people is hard work…) and will be back in session on Tuesday, May 3rd.

• Let's be there to welcome them back up to Albany and make sure that rent regulation is the top priority.
• Tenants say no business gets done in Albany until the rent laws are renewed and strengthened!

We can’t wait until the midnight hour on June 15th for stronger rent laws.

Buses will be leaving from throughout the city that morning, and returning in the evening. There is no cost for transportation. [We're trying to get one in the neighborhood.]

The Real Rent Reform Campaign is also sending groups up every week following this big mobilization. Please also contact realrentreform@gmail.com if you’re interested in going up on

• Tuesday, May 10, 2011
• Tuesday, May 17, 2011
• Tuesday, May 24, or
• Wednesday, June 1.

We’re getting down to the wire, folks – this is it! Please RSVP to realrentreform@gmail.com for a spot on the bus.  
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 (3) Rally at the Rent Guidelines Board Preliminary Vote on Tuesday, May 3, 2011

4:30 PM on .  . . !

Join other groups of stabilized tenants outside the Rent Guidelines Board 

Cooper Union's Great Hall, 7 East 7th St. (at 3rd Ave.)

and testify to keep our rents low.  

____________________________________________________________________

(4) Rally in front of Gov. Cuomo's NYC office

Monday, May 16, 2011

5:30 PM

The R3 Campaign will be rallying in front of Gov. Cuomo's NYC office at 633 Third Ave. (between 40th and 41st Streets) in Manhattan.  He will only hear tenants voices if there are a LOT of us!

Sneak preview: May 11th General Tenants Meeting

There was a recent RENT STABILIZATION court decision 
that will likely impose an increase on all tenants whose rents are below $1000.   

After two victories in the lower and middle courts - tenants lost and there can be no further appeal.

So come hear (and read)  how YOUR rent will be affected by this decision - and what you can do about it*  - and how we can stop the countdown to the expiration of the State's rent laws!

GENERAL TENANTS MEETING

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2011

8 PM

in the COMMUNITY ROOM

Bring a chair and a neighbor!
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* SOME of the things we can do: 

(1) Attend the Rally at 4:30 and testify at Rent Guidelines Board hearings, especially on Tuesday, May 3rd .  Ask your neighbors to join you as you explain ("testify") how rent increases affect YOU.

(2) Go to Albany with the Real Rent Reform Campaign on Tuesday, May 3rd.   Educate your neighbors about the rent laws.  (Most people in rent stabilization are low- or moderate income.  We need our homes - and the rights that come with rent stabilization - protected!)